


Public Displays of Affection

by hattricks



Series: PDA Fics [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: But also, Established Relationship, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Secret Relationship, featuring that one scene in cap 2, klance, secret back alley makeout sessions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-03 10:02:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13338891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hattricks/pseuds/hattricks
Summary: Lance held his breath. He knew, at this rate, they’d have two options: fight with what they had (which was Keith’s knife and team spirit) and hope they can skirt by with the help of the locals, or submit and become prisoners to the Galra. Neither situation was ideal. Lance looked to Keith, at his eyes and his eye lashes, the curve of his nose and the pink in his lips. He knew it was bad timing, but he really wanted to kiss Keith before whatever happened, happened.But when Keith turned his body to face him and said, “Kiss me.” With the same amount of emotion one would say, “Hand me that stapler,” it threw Lance completely off guard.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> You know that one scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier when Nat tells Steve to kiss her on the escalator so they can hide from the Hydra goons? This is like that, but with more klance.

Coran said the mission would be simple. 

Coran said that the Galra hadn’t reached this planet yet. 

Coran was wrong. 

Of course, Coran wasn’t to blame. The universe is large, the castle’s system updates as they travel, and it’s ten thousand years out of date. Even high-end Altean technology needs an upgrade eventually. 

Unfortunately for Lance and Keith, this meant they had to think on their feet. 

Their mission was to go to a trade centre, find a specific artifact that a neighbouring planet said was absolutely _essential_ for them to join the Voltron Coalition, and trade some old Altean jewellery for it. Lance had the necklace in his jacket pocket, and Keith was to carry the artifact. 

“What is this thing we’re looking for, again?” Lance asked. Keith reached into one of his pouches, pulled out a folded piece of paper, and handed it to Lance. Lance opened it and held it in front of himself. 

“It’s upside down,” Keith told him. He frowned.  
  
“What _is_ it?” 

“Some kind of embalming tool, I think.” 

Lance’s made a disgusted look and Keith smirked. “Lets hope it’s never been used.” 

With market stalls to their left and right, the boys really weren’t sure where to look. Some were more obviously not what they were looking for, some looked like they just came out of a 1950’s mobster movie, and some looked exactly like how Lance imagined a black market stall would look. The two suns of the out-of-the-way planet they were on shone brightly in his eyes, and he brought his hand up to shield them as he looked around. 

“Wonder why they made us go,” he said offhandedly, catching Keith’s attention from a stand that seemed to be selling only sharp objects. “Pidge and Matt are usually better at recon.”

Keith shrugged. “It’s kind of nice to be out of the castle, though,” he said, and Lance nodded in agreement. 

The path ahead narrowed, so Lance let Keith step in front and walked behind him, watching his feet through the tight space and avoiding eye contact with some of the shorter aliens that passed by. Keith stuck his hand out behind him without looking back, a silent question of whether or not Lance was still there. Lance tugged on his sleeve lightly, and held on until they got to a wider clearing. 

“You seeing anything yet?” Keith asked. Lance craned his neck over the crowd as best as he could, searching for a market stall with the weird embalming tool on display, but found nothing. Just as he was about to lean back down and tell his teammate this, Keith grabbed his arm and pulled him in across the path and in between two stalls. 

Out of breath and dazed, Lance asked what the _hell_ that was for. 

“Galra,” Keith whispered, and Lance felt his eyes go wide.

“But Coran said-”

“I know what Coran said, Lance, I was _there._ ” 

Keith put his body flush with the stall and Lance copied him, standing to his left. He could feel his heart racing and his face going red, and he tried to breathe as silently as he could. 

“What do we do?” He whispered. Keith ignored him and pulled out his knife, holding it in front of him like a mirror so he could get a look at the Galra soldiers. 

“They’re about 30 yards out,” He mumbled. “I don’t think they saw us.”

“So, what? We just wait for them to pass and then carry on?” Lance asked. Keith turned his head to look at him. 

“We need to alert the team and get out of here.” Keith said quietly. 

“Why? We’re already here. I say we just get the tool and go.” Lance leaned closer to Keith’s face. 

“We’re not equipped to fight. We don’t have our armour, our weapons, or our lions. And, there’s civilians.”

Lance let out a breath and nodded. He hated when Keith was right. 

A few silent moments passed before Keith put his knife up again. 

“They’re getting closer.” He mumbled. Lance blinked. Behind them was a massive wall of pink foliage that would be almost impossible to get through without creating a commotion, in front of them was the Galra, and beside them were the stalls. They were, for lack of a better term, fucked. 

Lance held his breath. He knew, at this rate, they’d have two options: fight with what they had (which was Keith’s knife and team spirit) and hope they can skirt by with the help of the locals, or submit and become prisoners to the Galra. Neither situation was ideal. Lance looked to Keith, at his eyes and his eye lashes, the curve of his nose and the pink in his lips. He knew it was bad timing, but he really wanted to kiss Keith before whatever happened, happened. 

But when Keith turned his body to face him and said, “Kiss me.” With the same amount of emotion one would say, “Hand me that stapler,” it threw Lance completely off guard. 

“What?” He shrieked, and Keith slapped a gloved hand over his mouth and shushed him. 

“Public Displays of Affection make people uncomfortable.” He said. Lance slowly raised his hand and removed Keith’s from his mouth. 

“Yeah, _people_ , not _Galra_. We don’t even know if that plan’ll work.”

“There’s only one way to find out. And they’re coming up fast.” Keith said, putting his knife away.

Lance was frozen. He wasn’t sure what to say in a situation like this. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, about to say something and giving up before the words could escape. Keith snapped his fingers in front of Lance’s face, bringing him back to reality. 

“And you’re sure this’ll work?” He asked. Keith gave him a hard look. 

“No, we just said that. Now come on, kiss me.”

Lance took a deep breath and straightened out. He offered a quick, “Ready?” And Keith nodded once before Lance took a half step forward, grabbing both sides of Keith’s face and kissing him. 

For a man who prided himself on his jagged edges, Lance realizes, Keith was very soft. His lips, his skin, his touch — everything about him made Lance melt. As often as he’d imagined what kissing Keith would be like, how it would feel to have his hair in between is fingers and his smile against his lips, nothing compared to the real thing. For a moment, Lance forgot he was in a dangerous situation, and just allowed himself to enjoy the kiss, even if it was still and silent. 

But then Keith’s hands rose, his left going to Lance’s hip and his right behind his back, and he pulled slightly, guiding Lance and himself back to the wall they’d been against before. When Keith’s back hit the wall, he let out a small grunt, making Lance’s stomach jump. He moved one hand to rest against the wall beside Keith’s head, and the other to card through Keith’s hair. 

Unfortunately, breathing needed to happen. Fortunately for Lance, this offered an opportunity to deepen the kiss. He let air out through his nose, and moved his lips with Keith’s as he breathed in, and Keith followed his movements. 

 _Okay,_ Lance thought, _open mouth kissing works._

And as much as he tried, he couldn’t stop himself from really getting into it. His hand playing with Keith’s hair, their bodies flush, and Keith’s lips on his was a lot, and he found himself smiling into the kiss. 

Lance was smart, smarter than most people gave him credit for, and he knew when signals weren’t well-received. But here, Keith — who seemed to always be tense and stressed about something or other — seemed relaxed. He even seemed to be enjoying himself, if the vice grip he had on Lance’s jacket was anything to go by. 

It was then that Lance heard the Galra soldiers walking by, chatting amongst themselves. He felt himself tense, but in that moment Keith pulled him closer (which Lance thought couldn’t have been possible, and _god_ he hated when Keith was right) and tilted his head slightly to get a better angle and _oh, this works too,_ and he realized the soldiers were passing right by he and Keith. At this point, Lance is no longer leading the kiss, but instead he and Keith are doing what they do best: working as a team. 

Lance leads again, tilting Keith’s head up slightly, and Keith obliges. He breaks off the kiss, and for a moment his lips feel cold, but then he’s trailing small kisses from the corner of Keith’s mouth to his jaw, and then following along his jaw line to his neck. He knows he’s pushing the boundaries, that a simple distraction kiss didn’t need to go this far, but the way Keith’s gripping his hair and moving ever so slightly to allow him more access doesn’t make Lance feel as though his advances are unwanted. He knows Keith, and he knows that if Keith wanted this to end he would end it, but he _hasn’t_. 

So Lance keeps placing kisses under Keith’s jaw, and along his throat, and eventually traces back up to the soft part of skin under Keith’s ear. He kisses there more openly, more sloppily, and with more meaning, but when his tongue touches the skin and Keith grunts his name, it’s suddenly all too much. 

Lance peels back, letting go of Keith completely and leaving two feet of space between them. He looks at Keith, his _friend_ Keith, and takes in his rosy cheeks and messy hair, and the way his jacket is half off one of his shoulders, and thinks to himself, _I did that._ And then he feels his own cheeks heat up. 

Keith lets out a loud breath, louder than probably intended, and he notices that Keith’s refusing to meet his eye, but he can’t look away. 

“We, uh-” Keith starts, but his voice sounds absolutely wrecked, and he clears his throat as he hikes his jacket back up. “We’re probably clear to go.” 

Lance nods before clearing his own throat and gesturing to the pathway beside them and the busy market that awaits them. 

“Lead the way.” 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> did someone say secret relationship au?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 of 2! I honestly was only going to make this a one shot but the responses were so great and the inspiration was strong so here we are. Thanks to everyone who came here from tumblr and reblogged the post, you're all the real MVPs

Lance had experience in sneaking. On earth, he’d snuck out of the garrison, he’d snuck back _into_ the garrison, and he’d even snuck out of his house once. In space, he snuck around Galran base ships, alien planets, and the odd vent here or there. He was quick, he was light on his feet, and he could climb fairly well, which made sneaking around a giant castle ship with only seven other people on board ridiculously easy for Lance, especially when one of those passengers was sneaking around with him. 

Lance and Keith hadn’t planned on keeping secrets from their teammates, it had just sort of _happened_. 

When they’d gotten back to the Castle of Lions after retrieving the weird embalming tool and making yet another alliance for the Voltron Coalition, both boys avoided each other like it was the fourteenth century and one of them had the plague. Keith would train by himself when he wasn’t forced into team training, and Lance would stow away in his room to beat the boss battle of some ridiculous Altean video game Coran had found in a storage room. Dinner was a mess of Keith’s silence and Lance’s lack thereof. They’d go their separate ways afterwards, Keith to his bedroom and Lance to wherever Hunk was going, and they’d repeat the process the next morning. 

The team didn’t seem to notice at first, but they were used to Lance and Keith being there for each other as needed, and not so much when not. It was when Matt asked Lance if he and Keith didn’t really get along one afternoon while playing video games with Pidge, and Pidge scoffed and said, “You should have seen them a year ago,” that it hit Lance that they _had_ made progress. Not only as friends, but as partners. A year ago, the idea of kissing Keith would have made Lance laugh, but less than a week ago they’d been necking, and he sort of realized that this silent agreement to just forget the whole thing had happened wasn’t doing either of them any good. 

So Lance had excused himself and made his way to the training arena, where he knew he’d find Keith. The whole walk there, he practiced what he was going to say:

_“We should talk about what happened; this doesn’t change anything between us, and if it had been Hunk out there instead of me the same thing probably would have happened. We were just playing a part, it didn’t mean anything.”_

But, of course, when the doors opened and he saw Keith dripping with sweat, his jacket tied around his waist and jaw clenched, fighting a training drone with as much concentration as he fought a Galran drone, all of Lance’s planning went right out the metaphorical window. Keith hadn’t heard him come in, so he leaned against the door frame and waited for Keith to finish kicking ass and taking drone codes before alerting him that he was here. When the floor opened and the beaten drone fell back in, Lance started a slow clap. 

“Not bad, Samurai,” he called out, pushing off the wall and walking toward a panting Keith. Keith looked back and smiled lightly, exhaustion written all over his face, and walked toward Lance as well. “What was that? Level twelve?” 

“Fourteen,” Keith breathed. Lance’s eyebrows shot up dramatically. 

“Impressive. Sorry I didn’t bring any water with me,” Lance said. Keith shrugged.

“S’all good,” he said, and then he grabbed the bottom of his t-shirt and pulled it up, wiping the sweat off his upper lip with it, and exposing his midriff in the process. Lance thought he must have had the power of god within him because _somehow_ , he was able to keep eye contact.

Lance watched Keith deactivate his bayard and stand up straighter as he took in a deep breath, and _why was he here again?_

_Right, right._

“So,” Lance started, and Keith cocked an eyebrow. “Look, we should talk about-”

“We don’t need to.” Keith cut him off, and then moved to walk past Lance, but he stuck his arm out and blocked him. 

“Why don’t we need to?” He asked, and Keith sighed, still out of breath. 

“We both know it didn’t mean anything, there’s no point in-”

“Then why are you avoiding me?” 

Keith swallowed and looked into Lance’s eyes. “You’re avoiding me, too.”

And, well, Lance had to admit that he had him there. He put his arm down and turned to face Keith properly, and Keith did the same. Lance sighed. He wasn’t sure how to say what he wanted to, not with Keith looking at him with a mix of concern and curiosity, and with his hair sticking to his forehead with sweat, and with him breathing so heavily like he was. 

“I just want us to be okay,” he tried, and he watched Keith’s shoulders loose some of their tension. “I mean, there’s less than ten people on this ship, and we see each other like, every day. It’s just impractical to not be open with each other.” 

Keith swallowed and glanced away, and for a second Lance thought maybe he’d said the wrong thing, but then Keith looked back up at him slowly, with a harder look. He recognized that expression as the same one Keith had given him back in the marketplace, but before he could ask what he was thinking, Keith was grabbing the front of Lance’s jacket with his hands, pulling him downwards, and crashing their lips together again. 

Lance thought it felt a lot like coming home. 

This time, it hadn’t taken long for the kiss to get spirited again. Lance’s hands immediately found themselves on Keith’s hips, and Keith slowly let go of Lance’s jacket and slid his gloved hands up, past Lance’s neck and to his jaw, steadying the kiss while making it so he can lead. And really, Lance had no problem with Keith leading. 

Their second kiss had differed from their first in the sense that it was sloppier and more desperate. The slow ascension from before was gone, and the intent of closeness and familiarity seemed to override any intention of delicacy. Lance was the one moving them this time, once again placing Keith’s back against the wall and kissing sloppily and wetly down his neck and around his collar bone, revelling in the salty skin under his tongue and lips. 

After that, secret make out sessions were a daily (or twice daily) occurrence. If the pair ever found themselves alone in a hallway, near an empty room, or they just _happened_ to run into each other on the training deck, conversation didn’t last long. Sometimes, on particularly busy days, when Lotor was being a bother or a nearby planet was interested in joining the coalition, they’d wait until everyone had gone to bed and sneak off to each other’s rooms. Those nights were nice, even if they only seemed to lay together and tell stories of their adventures on earth and kiss lazily until they were tired, and one of them had to go back to his own room. 

Much like how a watched pot never boils, Keith and Lance didn’t realize they were in a relationship until they were already there. Under the light of a pastel planet, as Hunk and Allura spoke to the leaders of a tribe, a pale blue alien girl with long, silvery hair and a body not unlike one of the girls Keith had seen in a motorcycle magazine back on earth, came and spoke to Lance. He tried to think nothing of it, of her lingering gazes and the way her hand touched his arm, but Keith found himself unreasonably angry. The worst part was that he _knew_ he was being unreasonable, because Lance wasn’t flirting back. Lance was treating the girl like he treated any other citizen on the planet.

But when Shiro called out to Lance to, “Quit flirting with the locals,” Keith moved from angry to seething. 

So when Lance woke up the next morning and saw his own shirtless figure in the bathroom mirror, sporting a nice set of bruises shaped much like Keith’s mouth just under his collar bones, he silently thanked the girl who’s name he’d already forgotten for asking _him_ about the coalition, and not Pidge. 

At breakfast Lance makes sure to zip his jacket up, _just in case_ , and when Allura asks if she should raise the temperatures in the castle he politely declines and says he just likes to be zipped up sometimes. She gives him a funny look but asks no other questions. 

Shiro then starts a spiel about how he thinks the team should take the day off. They’re apparently near a planet with another space mall, so anyone who wants to explore that is free to do so, but otherwise they can do what they please. 

“I’m proud of our teamwork lately,” he says as he raises his glass of milk — courtesy of Kaltenecker — in the air. “I know a lot’s happened in the past year, but we’ve come far. We’re a good team.” 

“Yeah,” Pidge says, but she’s got the same look in her eye as Matt gets when he brings up Shiro’s ‘wild’ days. “Especially since Lance and Keith dropped the sexual tension.” And then she shoves some food goo in her mouth to mask her laugh. Matt, on the other hand, snorts loudly and chokes on his own spit. 

Keith’s ears are red but otherwise doesn’t outwardly show any signs of embarrassment. Lance, on the other hand, chokes on his food, so he and Matt are coughing simultaneously. 

“Jeez,” Pidge says with her mouth full. “I was just kidding.” 

But after breakfast, when Keith’s gone off to his room to most likely polish his knives, Lance follows, and Keith already knows what he’s going to say. 

“We should tell the team about us.”

Keith nods twice before saying, “I agree, they’re starting to get suspicious.” 

Whether the team really was getting suspicious is something Lance never finds out. He doesn’t ask why Keith suspects so, or why he’d rather be in his room cleaning knives all afternoon instead of going out and exploring the space mall. Instead, he steps into Keith’s space, tilts his chin up, and kisses his lips softly. 

“You have the most gorgeous eyes,” He whispers, and Keith smiles and tucks his face into Lance’s shoulder. Lance just chuckles softly. “I mean it!” 

“I know you do,” Keith mumbles, and Lance is laughing again. He kisses the side of Keith’s head a couple times and wraps his arms around him before Keith unburies his own face and let’s Lance kiss him properly again. 

“I’m gonna miss sneaking around,” Lance mumbles. “It’s kinda fun.”

“Me too,” Keith admits. 

“It’s decided, then. We’ll sneak around every so often.”

Keith smiles. “The others will know we’re up to something, though.” 

“But they won’t know _where_ we’ll be. I mean, I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen maybe two rooms in the entire south side of the castle. That’s plenty of space to sneak around.” Lance says, and then places some kisses on Keith’s cheek and near his eye brow. Keith squirms slightly. 

“How do you even know which direction is south?” Keith asks. 

“Hunk and I mapped it the first week we were here. Kitchen’s east, training deck is west, and the commons are north.” 

“You’re totally making that up right now.”  
  
“Oh, absolutely.” Lance says, his lips ghosting over Keith’s and his hands back on his hips. He closes his eyes as he closes the gap between them, and feels Keith breathe in through the kiss. Keith’s hands go into Lance’s hair again, and Lance can feel Keith’s smile against his lips, which draws out his own smile, too. Softly and slowly, he shifts his hands so his finger tips are under Keith’s shirt, dancing over the skin and lightly tracing inconsistent patterns. Keith presses into it more, leaning more of his weight into Lance, and Lance adjusts for it, gripping Keith’s hips a little stronger and humming slightly. 

But then Lance feels Keith’s smile change into a smirk, and before he has time to prepare, Keith jumps up and wraps his legs around Lance’s waist. Lance breaks the kiss for a moment, repositioning his hands to support Keith’s thighs. 

The boys look into each others eyes, smiling together, breathing each other’s air and drinking in the fact that they’re here, and they’re together. Lance kisses Keith’s nose softly and Keith rolls his eyes before pressing kisses along Lance’s jaw. Lance turns he and Keith to the right and take a few steps forward before placing Keith on his own dresser and standing in between his boyfriend’s legs. 

“Hey Lance?” Keith whispers, still peppering kisses along Lance’s jaw. 

Lance hums in response. 

“I really care about you.” He breathes into Lance’s ear, sending a shiver down his spine. Lance turns his head slightly and captures Keith’s lips with his own again. 

It was then that Keith’s door slides open, and Shiro walks in, saying, “Keith, have you seen-” but he never finishes his sentence. Both Keith and Lance quickly break their kiss to look at Shiro, Keith still on the desk and in each other’s arms, but with shocked expressions. To their surprise, Shiro’s face stays neutral. 

“Well,” he says before clicking his tongue and giving the boys two thumbs up. Then, he pivots, turns on his heel, and walks out. The door slides closed, and that’s when Lance bursts out into a contagious laughter. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any and all comments/feedback is greatly appreciated! You can also find me on [tumblr](https://wingedkeith.tumblr.com) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/keetkogane) :^)

**Author's Note:**

> Any and all feedback would be really appreciated! You can find me on [tumblr](https://wingedkeith.tumblr.com) and on [twitter](https://twitter.com/keetkogane).


End file.
